Major change in the PM of eliminating the 4:10 Anderson express and 4:20 Anderson short-turn outbounds; combining them into a new 4:15 local. And 337 is five minutes later, creating a 40 minute gap from 5:50 to 6:30pm.

Diverging Route wrote:Major change in the PM of eliminating the 4:10 Anderson express and 4:20 Anderson short-turn outbounds; combining them into a new 4:15 local. And 337 is five minutes later, creating a 40 minute gap from 5:50 to 6:30pm.

Current schedule is 2:15, 3:00, 3:40, 4:10 Express, 4:20 Anderson, 4:45. So they tried to give an early express option and push the interior folks to the turn, but they also gave an earlier train with the 3:40, so those folks who previously couldn't make the 3:10 and had to sit around until 4:10 now have a middle option. This essentially introduced a third train in the same time slot they previously ran two, but it allowed an express option.

New schedule is 2:15, 3:00, 3:40, 4:15, 4:45 all making all stops. This is actually better overall service. Headways drop from 60 to 45 to 40 to 35 to 30 as the schedule transitions from the mid-day to rush hour and nobody gets left out. This line is so short an express train only saves about 5 minutes. I'm guessing they figured out they didn't need 3 trains when 2 would suffice, and rather than go back to the Anderson turn they opted for a better service spread. They have been cancelling a lot of Reading turns lately in the afternoon... maybe this will fix that.

Diverging Route wrote:Major change in the PM of eliminating the 4:10 Anderson express and 4:20 Anderson short-turn outbounds; combining them into a new 4:15 local. And 337 is five minutes later, creating a 40 minute gap from 5:50 to 6:30pm.

Thanks for passing this along. I don't see any major changes on the South side, but I only did a quick scan. It appears they have reinstituted "snow days" with limited service (which makes sense to me given the high number of folks who work from home on such days).

Not only did they bring back the severe weather schedules, they've now added a color coding system on them, which i find interesting but completely unnecessary.Purple - normal serviceBlue - severe weather, trains in blue will not operateOrange - special schedules in effectGray - no service

deathtopumpkins wrote:Not only did they bring back the severe weather schedules, they've now added a color coding system on them, which i find interesting but completely unnecessary.Purple - normal serviceBlue - severe weather, trains in blue will not operateOrange - special schedules in effectGray - no service

I'm curious what thoughts others have on this...

Speaking of this, I'm surprised they have never instituted special limited service for certain holidays such as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, MLK Day, heck even the day after Thanksgiving. Those days all get full regular service, and while many folks work those days, the trains are much less crowded.

deathtopumpkins wrote:Not only did they bring back the severe weather schedules, they've now added a color coding system on them, which i find interesting but completely unnecessary.Purple - normal serviceBlue - severe weather, trains in blue will not operateOrange - special schedules in effectGray - no service

I'm curious what thoughts others have on this...

Speaking of this, I'm surprised they have never instituted special limited service for certain holidays such as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, MLK Day, heck even the day after Thanksgiving. Those days all get full regular service, and while many folks work those days, the trains are much less crowded.

And the converse, adding extra "get-away" service afternnoons before holidays, such as Labor Day weekend, Thanksgiving, etc. LIRR, MNRR, NJT, and others do this quite effectively. Here's an example.

deathtopumpkins wrote:Not only did they bring back the severe weather schedules, they've now added a color coding system on them, which i find interesting but completely unnecessary.Purple - normal serviceBlue - severe weather, trains in blue will not operateOrange - special schedules in effectGray - no service

I'm curious what thoughts others have on this...

Speaking of this, I'm surprised they have never instituted special limited service for certain holidays such as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, MLK Day, heck even the day after Thanksgiving. Those days all get full regular service, and while many folks work those days, the trains are much less crowded.

They often run a Saturday/Sunday schedule on holidays. That used to include Veterans Day, Columbus Day, etc., but thankfully that stopped a few years ago.

If they do that it really screws over those of us who do have to work on most of those holidays. For example, look at the Newburyport schedule. The earliest train to Boston on weekends arrives at 9:56 AM. That's completely useless for commuting, and means that if you have an 8-4 or 9-5 job in the city, and the T decides to run a weekend schedule on a holiday, you're not getting to work on time.

Only real change I see on the Providence line is the Attleboro short turn (when inbound) departs a few minutes earlier (7:12 vs 7:14 I believe). Is it to get passengers into Boston a tad earlier? Would it also be that they want to create a little more distance between 842 and 808? Speaking of which, is that the reason that 808 sometimes has to randomly slowdown, because of train traffic?

And here I was fearing some huge overhaul, such as the January 2016 drafts...

I've been told the T pretty much runs the entire system the same, so commuter rail runs the same schedule "day" that bus and transit do. It is odd they don't have an intermediate service level, but on the other hand there is probably something in the union agreements about the number of holidays. If some of these "lesser" holidays aren't union holidays, what are you going to do with all the folks scheduled to work if you reduce the schedule? Pay them to stay home?

sonicdoommario wrote:Only real change I see on the Providence line is the Attleboro short turn (when inbound) departs a few minutes earlier (7:12 vs 7:14 I believe). Is it to get passengers into Boston a tad earlier? Would it also be that they want to create a little more distance between 842 and 808? Speaking of which, is that the reason that 808 sometimes has to randomly slowdown, because of train traffic?

And here I was fearing some huge overhaul, such as the January 2016 drafts...

The T has always said they wanted to start with a "fresh sheet" and then begin tweaking to refine the service pattern. This schedule change wasn't billed as a massive overhaul. I would expect fewer changes next time around, except for the Worcester Line.

As for your specific trains, the arrival times in Boston are the same. So the train must be consistently running a few minutes late and yes getting into 808 (likely due to heavy boardings) and running it a few minutes earlier allows them to add for the dwell time and still get people into Boston "on time".